


sickeningly good for each other

by bestliars



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-22
Updated: 2013-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-06 02:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestliars/pseuds/bestliars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being sick isn’t that bad if you have people looking out for you</p>
            </blockquote>





	sickeningly good for each other

**Author's Note:**

> I think I may have given myself a cavity writing this.
> 
> Mostly written in chat to Stellarer as an expression of relief over RNH just being sick, and that his missing the last game (3/20/13) wasn’t a cue for the latest round of Shoulder Apocalypse.
> 
> betaed by Stellarer, who isn't a fish, but an absolute sweetheart and grammar ace.

Sam isn’t the kids’ babysitter, really, he isn’t, but he does worry. They’re his teammates, and he has to look after them, because clearly they can’t look out for themselves.

Most of the time Ryan worries him the least, even if he is the second youngest. Ryan knows stuff. Ryan can figure things out. Ryan has never been involved in a face-to-face staircase collision that required stitches, at least as far as Sam knows.

Sam worries about Ryan because Ryan is nineteen and playing in the NHL, which isn’t easy. There’s a lot of pressure, and every night is special sort of challenge. Sam lived through it not too long ago, he knows how hard it is. But Sam isn’t worried that Ryan’s going to electrocute himself making toast, or accidently out anyone on twitter, which isn’t true of the others. This comparatively low disaster risk means that most of the time Ryan is not at the center of Sam’s worry.

Only tonight he is, because the poor kid is sick, sick enough to not play, sick enough to leave the arena voluntarily, which is pretty sick. Ryan isn’t someone who will look out for himself if doing so could hurt the team. 

Sam doesn’t have time to worry about Ryan during the game, he has to play hockey. It’s alright, for a while, before it disintegrates. Unfortunately, blowing a lead in the third is a familiar sensation. On to overtime. Shootout. Nothing works. The end, goodnight.

After the game Sam does start to worry again. Maybe he should make Ryan soup? But that wouldn’t help, he can’t cook. Maybe he should pick up some soup? Maybe he could make make Ryan some tea? Sam can boil water. (He isn’t a “den mother,” and Whits is in _no_ position to make fun of him for keeping an eye on any younger roommates.)

When Sam gets home he goes to check on Ryan and finds him sound asleep. Sam’s happy he didn’t stay up to watch them lose on tv. He’s downstairs opening kitchen cabinets, searching for tea bags he could have sworn existed when the doorbell rings. Justin isn’t home yet, so Sam goes to answer it.

Through the narrow window at the side of the front door he sees that it’s Taylor and Jordan. Sam considers ignoring them, but he knows they won’t stop ringing the bell, and that might wake Ryan up. He already isn't in a great mood after that game, obviously, and Taylor and Jordan following him home doesn't make him happier.

He opens the door and glares. “Can you just go away?” He asks.

“Um...No?” Taylor says.

Sam sighs, and hurries them inside before any more heat leaks out.

"Don't you have your own place to be?" He asks. “Your own roommate to annoy?”

Looking helpless and too young, Taylor says, "We want to check up on Ryan."

They’re too clingy and it isn’t adorable at all. Sam should really not encourage this. Nuge is probably still contagious, and it would suck if anyone else got sick.

"Please?" Ebs says, with his big dumb eyes, and like, Sam has a heart, right? He can't say no to that.

"Ugh, fine. But I think you're all terrible."

This is the kind of profoundly co-dependant and not entirely healthy behavior that normally Ryan would talk Taylor and Jordan out of, but this particular episode is caused by his absence, which means there’s no one to intervene stop them. Sam could try, but it probably wouldn’t work, and he’s had enough failure for one day.

They pull off their boots and troop past him, heading straight up to Ryan's room. Sam really isn't interested in their collective weirdness, so he leaves them alone. He has his own stuff to do, calming down to rest, getting centered after the loss. But when he's about to go to bed and the terrible twosome still haven't left he gets curious, which is never a good thing.

He just pokes his head into Ryan's room—the door is slightly open, so everyone had better be fully dressed. What he finds is disgustingly cute. Taylor and Jordan are asleep on either side of Ryan, curled protectively around him like parentheses. It's fucking adorable.

Sam kind of hates them for being so cute where he has to put up with them. Couldn't they be a little bit less precious? Sam considers taking a picture, but really this is too sweet to be used as blackmail material. Instead he closes the door and goes to bed himself. Hopefully everyone will feel better in the morning.


End file.
